INTERNET SAFETY FOR KIDS

Byalphadesign244

WHAT IS INTER­NET SAFE­TY FOR KIDS?

Inter­net use among kids is per­va­sive — near­ly all U.S. teens (96%) say they use the inter­net every day. It also begins ear­ly. The major­i­ty of par­ents with younger kids (89% with kids ages 5 to 11, 81% with kids ages 3 to 4 and 57% with kids 2 and younger) report that their chil­dren watch YouTube videos. 
Despite its pop­u­lar­i­ty — and its many ben­e­fits — the inter­net can be a dan­ger­ous place for child users. Some online risks include expo­sure to:
> nap­pro­pri­ate content;
> cyber­bul­ly­ing;
> iden­ti­ty theft and pri­va­cy breeches;
> exploita­tion and abuse;
> scams; and
> mis­in­for­ma­tion.
The field of inter­net safe­ty is ded­i­cat­ed to keep­ing users and their online inter­ac­tions safe and secure. Pro­tect­ing child users from harm or mis­use is a team effort — one that involves par­ents, edu­ca­tors, con­tent devel­op­ers, ser­vice providers and the chil­dren them­selves work­ing together.
Suc­cess­ful­ly sup­port­ing inter­net safe­ty for kids involves teach­ing young users and the adults in their lives about the poten­tial risks of tech­nol­o­gy use. It also involves under­stand­ing what safe and respon­si­ble inter­net use looks like and how to iden­ti­fy and avoid unsafe deci­sions and behav­iors online.

CHIL­DREN’S INTER­NET SAFETY WEB­SITES AND TOOLS

Parental con­trols and fil­ters are one way that adults can help kids have healthy, safe and pos­i­tive expe­ri­ences online. These soft­ware tools allow adults to mon­i­tor, fil­ter and lim­it what a child sees and does on the internet.

Some com­pa­nies offer­ing step-by-step instruc­tions on how to use parental con­trols and fil­ters include:

  • Apple Screen Time allows adults to set up con­tent and pri­va­cy restric­tions on a child’s iPad or iPhone. In doing so, par­ents can restrict explic­it con­tent, pro­hib­it pur­chas­es and down­loads, adjust pri­va­cy set­tings, lim­it time spent on devices and more.
  • Google’s Fam­i­ly Link which enables par­ents to mon­i­tor a child’s online activ­i­ties, man­age their pri­va­cy set­tings, set time lim­its and more.
  • Microsoft’s Fam­i­ly Safe­ty works with the Edge brows­er to set screen time lim­its and mon­i­tor a child’s search­es and web activ­i­ty. It also allows par­ents to track a child’s loca­tion, mon­i­tor their X‑Box set­tings and use con­tent fil­ters to keep search results kid-friendly
  • YouTube — used by rough­ly 90% of all Amer­i­can teens, accord­ing to Pew Research Cen­ter — offers two youth-friend­ly con­tent settings for par­ents to choose from: Explore (ages 9+) and Explore More (ages 13+). Par­ents of younger users can opt for the YouTube Kids app, which pack­ages videos three ways — for view­ers 4 and under, ages 5 to 8 and ages 9 to 12.
  • ScreenSense is a non­prof­it devot­ed to ​“help­ing par­ents and schools teach healthy tech use to chil­dren.” The orga­ni­za­tion offers a com­pre­hen­sive review of the parental con­trols avail­able across a range of com­mu­ni­ca­tion chan­nels — from inter­net brows­ing to video stream­ing, social media plat­forms to gam­ing con­soles and more.

10 ESSEN­TIAL INTER­NET SAFE­TY TIPS FOR KIDS

Pro­mot­ing inter­net safe­ty for kids is more of a learn­ing jour­ney than a one-and-done les­son. Par­ents and care­givers should set clear bound­aries and expec­ta­tions for a young person’s activ­i­ties online. They should also reg­u­lar­ly check in with young users and seek to under­stand the sites, games and con­tacts that they are access­ing online.

The list below shares inter­net safe­ty tips for kids and adults to keep in mind when play­ing, learn­ing and explor­ing online.

  1. Be smart about pass­words. Cre­ate pow­er­ful pass­words that can’t be found in a dic­tio­nary (and that incor­po­rate num­bers and spe­cial char­ac­ters). Keep pass­words pri­vate (shar­ing with par­ents is okay!) and change your pass­words regularly.
  2. Check your set­tings. Turn all pri­va­cy set­tings on, loca­tion track­ing off and ensure they are set to min­i­mize data collection.
  3. Do your research. For par­ents: Check the rec­om­mend­ed age rat­ing before adding new con­tent to a child’s device try Com­mon Sense Media for apps and ESRB for video games. Read reviews, deter­mine if ads or in-app pur­chas­es are part of the offer and explore demos to see if the con­tent fits with your family’s values.
  4. Stop and ask. Young users should imme­di­ate­ly stop and alert an adult if they expe­ri­ence some­thing unusu­al or uncom­fort­able online. Kids should repeat these same steps — stop­ping and secur­ing an adult’s approval before pro­ceed­ing — each time they get asked to pur­chase, upload or down­load con­tent online.
  5. Don’t fall for pop-ups. Avoid click­bait quizzes or spe­cial offers, which often try to col­lect per­son­al information.
  6. Stay unseen. Keep web­cams cov­ered when not in use. Stick­ing a piece of tape over a device’s cam­era is a cheap and easy way to pre­vent unau­tho­rized viewing.
  7. Shrink the inter­net. Use safe search options and parental con­trols to lim­it a child’s expo­sure to inap­pro­pri­ate con­tent and time lim­its to keep screen time in check.
  8. Sup­port open surf­ing. Keep tech­nol­o­gy cen­tral­ly locat­ed to ensure a line of sight into a child’s inter­net activities.
  9. Social­ize skep­ti­cal­ly. Rec­og­nize the dif­fer­ence between real-life friends and online-only friends. Share what to do if an online-only friend asks for unique per­son­al details, such as a person’s full name, pho­to, mail­ing address or passwords.
  10. Pro­tect when prompt­ed. Updat­ing the apps, inter­net browsers and oper­at­ing sys­tems on devices is a must-do move for main­tain­ing good online health.

Why Internet Safety Matters for Kids

Children face unique online risks because of their natural traits—innocence, curiosity, a desire for independence, and sometimes fear of consequences, as noted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

During childhood and adolescence, kids go through major social, emotional, and behavioral development. The internet can be a powerful tool for learning, entertainment, and connection, but it also creates opportunities for cyberbullying, online predators, and misinformation because of its anonymous nature.

That’s why adults play a vital role in guiding kids’ digital experiences. By staying involved and keeping an eye on what children do online, parents and caregivers can help make the internet a safer, healthier, and more positive place for them to explore:

INTER­NET SAFE­TY RULES FOR KIDS: SET­TING GUIDELINES

The sci­ence on ado­les­cent brain devel­op­ment indi­cates that young people’s brains are still chang­ing and matur­ing well into adult­hood. As a result, young peo­ple are more reac­tive to social and emo­tion­al fac­tors and are more like­ly to act impul­sive­ly and engage in risky behav­iors when com­pared to indi­vid­u­als with ful­ly devel­oped brains.

Sci­en­tists have also warned that time spent on social media can neg­a­tive­ly impact a child’s men­tal well-being. For exam­ple: Numer­ous stud­ies have linked high­er lev­els of social media use among ado­les­cents to adverse out­comes, includ­ing increased lev­els of anx­i­ety, depres­sion and dis­rupt­ed sleep.

These find­ings under­score why it is so impor­tant for par­ents and adults to set clear expec­ta­tions and rules for young inter­net users. ScreenSense shares four ways that fam­i­lies can sup­port safe and healthy tech­nol­o­gy use at home.
This advice includes:

Keep­ing the lines of com­mu­ni­ca­tion open. As chil­dren grow, their needs and desires as inter­net users also change. To sup­port young peo­ple on this jour­ney, par­ents should strive to be flex­i­ble, approach­able and informed every step of the way. Adults should expect to evolve bound­aries that are out­dat­ed or inef­fec­tive and be pre­pared to enact con­se­quences when­ev­er rules are bro­ken or bent.

Lim­it­ing tech­nol­o­gy use. Clear­ly define when and where it’s okay for kids to use tech­nol­o­gy dur­ing the week and which sce­nar­ios require a child to pow­er down and be screen-free. Sam­ple ques­tions par­ents might ask include: Are screens allowed at bed­time? While play­ing with friends? At restau­rants? Before home­work? Dur­ing the school week?

Steer­ing chil­dren toward good online con­tent. Put parental con­trols to use, and check age rec­om­men­da­tions before giv­ing a kid access to a new game or app. Com­mon Sense Media rec­om­mends the min­i­mum age for using var­i­ous social net­work­ing tools, such as Tik­Tok and Insta­gram (at least 15 years old) and Snapchat and Mes­sen­ger (at least 16 years old).

Pro­tect­ing your family’s offline activ­i­ties. Time online quick­ly snow­balls from min­utes to hours to long swaths of a day. To min­i­mize mind­less scrolling, iden­ti­fy the screen-free activ­i­ties that your fam­i­ly enjoys most and sched­ule these expe­ri­ences into your day or week. Be sure to plan for some new activ­i­ties and inter­ests for your fam­i­ly or child to try, too.